A group of California teachers is preparing for a Supreme Court battle to overturn forced union dues in a groundbreaking lawsuit filed in June.

For nearly three decades, the Supreme Court has allowed closed-shop unionism, in which public employees must pay dues to labor groups handling collective bargaining negotiations.

The Supreme Court established Beck Rights in 1988 allowing workers to opt out of union dues for political activities, while continuing to pay for union negotiating expenses. The teachers are hoping to take that battle one step further by putting an end to all coercive union dues.

Good luck with that. Even if you get a majority of voters to put that in your state Constitution, all the facists have to do is find ONE judge to nullify it, and SCOTUS will make that the law of the land.

If this is going straight through the federal courts, the judges have no political campaigns to contribute to, because they’re appointees approved by the Senate. If it’s going through state courts, to be removed to SCOTUS by writ of certiorari, then campaign contributions are a factor.

“Ten California schoolteachers are challenging Californias policy of forcing all public employees to pay union dues for collective bargaining. The Center for Individual Rights (CIR) is aiding their suit. The CIR views the issue through the lens of the Constitution, rather than as a contest of labor policy.

Our efforts are not anti-union; we are trying to solidify the First Amendment rights of public employees to freely assemble, CIR president Terry Pell said.

The plaintiffs filed a preliminary injunction on Tuesday asking the court to waive the teachers union dues during the ongoing trial. Pell is certain the motion will fail, which is all the better for the plaintiffs because it will fast-track the litigation to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and eventually the Supreme Court.

This is a piece of strategic litigationwere trying to get the issue of compulsory union dues to the Supreme Court as quickly as possible, he said. We know that lower courts cant overrule Supreme Court precedent, but this will expedite us through the system.

The Roberts court opened the door to ending coercive unionism last year when it ruled 5-4 that Service Employees International Union improperly charged non-union members for political activities. Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority in Knox v. Service Employees International Union, said the forced dues on non-union members were indefensible

Public-sector unions have the right under the First Amendment to express their views on political and social issues without government interference But employees who choose not to join a union have the same rights, Alito ruled. The First Amendment creates a forum in which all may seek, without hindrance or aid from the State, to move public opinion and achieve their political goals.

The California plaintiffs take this reasoning a step further. They argue that negotiations between teachers unions and state officials are a political act in and of themselves. Paying money to aid in union negotiations, Pell says, violates the rights of teachers who object to union goals of maximizing expensive benefits, such as Californias underfunded pension plan.

All public-sector union bargainingon issues like pensions and pay and leave and seniority rulesare claims on the public Treasury, an inherently political act, Pell said. Some union teachers may think this is a good thing, but our clients say that unions shouldnt be collecting more and more of the public pie while the parents of their students are struggling.

The Obama administrations labor policies have only exacerbated the tension between First Amendment rights and financing the political activities of unions.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled in December 2012 that non-union employees should be forced to pay for lobbying expenses as an apolitical activity, if the costs lead to improvements for all employees.

The teachers are not alone in their fight. The National Right to Work Foundation, which won the Knox case, is waging a similar battle in Texas where six airline employees filed a class action suit challenging the concept of exclusive bargaining as an encroachment on the freedom of assembly and speech.

Union bosses have abused their extraordinary government-granted power to automatically compel workers to fund their political activities unless workers objecta power granted to no other private organization in our countryfor far too long, Mark Mix, president of National Right to Work, said in a statement. The First Amendment right of workers who refrain from union membership to automatically refrain from paying union dues at all and especially for politics is long overdue.

There are some great teachers out there....but the idiots get paid exactly the same.

Yeah. Hm. Well, when I was studying to be a teacher at Syracuse U in 1956-58, NEA was a professional organization, there was no AFT, nor were there any teacher unions. State standards for teachers was very high, and the universal New York State Regents' Examinations for all 8th graders guaranteed minimum requirements to graduate into high school. Failure kept you back. No excuse. No misplaced compassion.

For the beginning teacher, a Bachelor's degree, with ongoing progress toward a Master's degree was necessary for a temporary license, with a permanent license upon completion within a maximum, under state law, of five years from initial employment. Failure to accomplish this goal resulted in permanent cancellation of the teaching license.

For this kind of teacher qualification we paid almost as high beginning salary as we did for a janitor or low-wage factory employee. There were no idiot teachers, and the PTAs weeded out poor performers in the first three years before tenure upon the fourth year's rehire cut in. After that, there was job security.

With this kind of pay, in an economy where most households did not have two paychecks, generally for a decent life a male teacher only had to moonlight on another job or two to make ends meet.

Also, in those days, THERE WERE NO COLLEGE LOANS. To get an education, you had to give up at least four years of your life's earning span, and pay for it. However, in New York State, the tuition at State operated teacher's college was zero! zip! nada! so entry there was open to students from low-income families who otherwise could not afford it.

Regarding the performance of primary and secondary students, Regents Examinations for each secondary school subject preparatory to college acceptance gave assurance for a college future with a Regents Diploma. Even for a non-Regents course, I saw low-skill students finally get a diploma at 19 or 20 years old after extra coaching. It was a prerequisite to meaningful employment almost anywhere.

At that time, home schooling was not thought of, nor was it needed. Parents were vitally involved in the operation of the local schools, and the teachers answered to the parents--not vice versa. Every school district had a truant officer and, up to one's 16th birthday, irregular attendance put the child into a reform school, with the parent being responsible for the child's attendance or else his incarceration.

Are you beginning to get the point of why unions got a foot in the door, and why we have poor teachers today? IT IS BECAUSE WHEN WE HAD GOOD PROFESSIONALLY PERFORMING TEACHERS, WE WOULD NOT PAY A LIVING WAGE FOR THEM! Now, we've got exactly what we deserve. What did we say then? "Them that can, do; them that can't, teach." What a brilliant estimate of the situation. (/sarc)

It is we who are at fault. We had no gratitude for professionals when we had them. Now we moan because we don't.

39
posted on 07/02/2013 4:27:37 PM PDT
by imardmd1
(Motto in my high school study hall:"If you do less than your best, you fail.")

If he survived thirty years in such schools, here's a secret he might have learned:

The 8th grade I was in had gotten a real bad reputation of unruliness and trashing teachers. The worst of us was Freddie. It was well known that he could and would really hurt you in a fight, with relish. And he was clever in frustrating the teachers, who had all been women.

So the principal hired a WWII P-51 pilot, a man that had been a reform school teacher for a few years. On the fall school opening day, his first words to us were:

"I'm Mr. Peck. You are mine and this is my room. If any of you boys give me any trouble, you will meet Freddie after school. Freddie, if you give me any trouble, you will meet me after school. Do you all understand this, as of right now? Yes, or -- No?"

There were no "Noes" and we spent the rest of our school careers as governable class members. Mr. Peck later became Vice Principal. He attended our 35th high school class reunion, having finished his years in that school.

50
posted on 07/04/2013 1:47:34 PM PDT
by imardmd1
(Let the redeemed of The LORD say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. (Ps. 107:2))

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